The Lions selection that ‘gutted’ Andy Farrell and why he has opted for a 6/2 third Test bench
Lions head coach Andy Farrell in Sydney on Thursday
British and Irish Lions boss Andy Farrell has explained the logic behind the two changes to his third Test starting XV and the alteration of his bench from a five/three forwards/backs split to six/two.
Ahead of this Saturday’s Test series finale in Sydney against the Wallabies, he also revealed the decision that “gutted’ him last weekend in Melbourne. He also saluted Tadhg Furlong’s phenomenal achievement in getting chosen to start his ninth successive Lions Test match.
Looking at the run-on team for Sydney, where second Test subs James Ryan and Blair Kinghorn have been promoted to start with Ollie Chessum dropping to the bench and James Lowe missing out on the matchday 23, Farrell said: “James (Ryan) thoroughly deserves his start.
“He has grown throughout this tour, his physicality when he has come off the bench and certainly when he has put the jersey on over the last three or four weeks has been there for all to see, so we think he is the right person to start this Test.
“I was gutted actually…”
“We thought Blair is obviously a great athlete, but the unpredictability of his game as well makes him very dangerous, the conditions, etc that we are expecting as far as the aerial game will be at a premium, we would have thought, so this game suits him as well.”
Switching to the bench where Alex Mitchell and Owen Farrell are the only two backs included as Ben Earl has been named as an additional forward, Farrell reasoned: “That [6/2] is what is best for our group and the game that lies ahead for how we want to play it and how we want to combat Australia’s game as well.
“It’s what is right for the group and how we see them pulling up after two Test matches, but what we have also done with them this week and how we freshened them up and whether we feel that they are in the right frame of mind – and this is the best 23 to take the group forward.
“We have players in the nature of Blair, Tommy Freeman and Hugo (Keenan) who can do all across all of that,” he added with regards to backfield covering if injuries occur during the match and a positional reshuffle is needed.
The inclusion of Mitchell as No.22 on the bench means he has either been selected to start or named as a replacement in all 10 tour matches, including the pre-trip opening in Dublin. However, it won’t be a case of 10 straight appearances as he was left as an unused sub in Melbourne, something that “gutted” Farrell.
“I was gutted actually that I couldn’t get him on at the weekend but that was the nature of the Test, of holding someone back there,” he explained. “But yeah, I have obviously been talking to him all the way through and he just loved the whole concept of just getting on and playing.
“These lads, that’s what they were brought up to do, when you start playing rugby as a kid, that’s all you want to do, you want to play. Training is so important for preparation, but these lads have been training all their lives for these moments.”
Those moments, the head coach added, epitomise the likes of tighthead Furlong, who is primed for his ninth consecutive Test start across the last three Lions tours, while 2025 skipper Maro Itoje is set for his eighth straight Test start, having been a sub in the 2017 opener versus New Zealand.
“It’s amazing,” he said of Furlong. “It’s been well documented how much he loves playing for the Lions but also in the sense that over the last year or 18 months the continuity of his game and fitness etc it just so happened that when this comes around, how much it means to him to get himself in the right frame of mind to be able to do what he has done.
“It isn’t just the performances that have been through the roof. It’s also his manner on a Lions tour as well. I have never seen him in such good spirits, so he is ready to go again.”
Switching to Itoje, he added: “Not quite nine but it [eight] is quite good. Look at the quality of player they are, look at the standing that they have with any group that they represent. Those two lads epitomise what it takes to be a top-level international player.
“He [Furlong] would tell you he has had to adapt his training and how he looks after himself, understanding his body a lot more over the last couple of years, but to be honest, he is unbelievably diligent in all of that now.
“But the nature of a tour like this works in someone like Tadhg’s favour. When you have not got a normal week, which is a seven-day process of warming up and warming down and having to do all sorts of stuff to tick boxes, you get out of own lane on a tour like this because you just have to roll with the punches of what’s thrown in front of you, so I suppose that helps.”
